Sample Solution

A needs assessment helps you determine what needs to be accomplished to reach your project goals. This assessment of needs then informs a project’s overall plan and approaches by helping you identify targeted strategies and prioritize resources. Needs assessments serve as incredibly powerful tools for decision making, resource allocation, and ultimately reaching programmatic goals. They can be utilized across a range of settings (e.g., community, school, hospital, state) to shed light on a variety of topics, such as what programmatic actions should be taken to improve breastfeeding rates in a hospital or increase kindergarten readiness across a state. It’s important to conduct needs assessment at the onset of the project, so that programs are appropriately tailored to the individuals and communities you serve. When defining your objectives, ask yourself: Why are you conducting the needs assessment and what do you plan to do with the findings? For example, if you are working on a program seeking to increase breastfeeding initiation among first-time mothers in a community, your needs assessment objectives may include: understand breastfeeding knowledge and intentions of first-time mothers in your community, understand perceived assets and barriers to breastfeeding among first-time mothers in your community, assess assets and barriers related to the provision of breastfeeding support in local hospitals and after discharge.